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Monthly Archives: November 2012

Ok, so I have slacked off on this so I am posting write ups of the last few cons of October in WV in one big post.

Tsubasacon

The ninth year of Tsubasacon was much like the previous. Several guests, various panels, dealers and artists, cosplayers, and a lot of people in the hallways.

Guest were all right, just a little underwhelming to me. They went from four voice actors last year to two this year, two artist guest to one, though this year they at least had a band that showed up and played different shows. The vendor room was a little less this year too. Same number of vendors just less tables sold; they did have one vendor cancel at the last moment but did get a replacement who bought less space. Panel and events line up is a mixed bag depending on your preferences. Game shows were big again with Greggo hosting again, Random Battle Group, the Brony and Pokemon meet ups, several cosplay panels, and various panels on different concepts.

The convention center is really gotten too small for the event. This has caused moving through the small hallways even tougher than past years. More people moved to hanging outside which helped some of the problems, but not much. The con did set out some smaller tables and chairs in one of the few gathering spots in the center with room which was nice. There just needs to be more of it. But unless they get a lot of money to take over the arena next door. I do not see that happening.

Tsubasacon is for people who want to go to a con full of friendly people to hang out and share the love cartoons, comics, Doctor Who, video games, cosplaying and other such things together. Unfortunately I go to anime conventions for anime. I feel that if they just declared themselves more a multimedia con or used the phrase “otaku entertainment” con instead I would be happier.

WV Book Festival
I only attended on Sunday, so I missed the what I assumed to be the bigger part of the event on Saturday. Still I was able to pick up a few books from different sci-fi/fantasy authors, see a film about the Flatwoods Monster, and take in a panel by Nobelman about his books on the creators of Superman and Batman.

Good event for literary fans of all sorts. It is free, bunches of authors and publishers, activities (mainly for kids though), and the used book sell with great deals.

Charcon
Charcon’s seventh year and back in the Charleston Civic Center. They had a hall filled with miniature gaming of all kinds, board game galore, vendors, some artist, and their famed raffle. They had video gaming in the lounge of the center and RPGs up in the 2nd floor hallway. Plenty of room up there for them.

Charcon is great if you are heavily into table top gaming. Wide selection of games to play, demo, learn about, and talk about. I just do not see much beyond that though. They had some guest, but did not really do anything with them. Some of the artists spent the whole time at their tables and Andy Hopp was never at his table hanging out and playing games. So two different extremes. The con also had the most useless con program guide I have ever seen and I have seen many. Mostly full of ads, a nice coupon here and there, and a list of some events and areas they had. It listed a flea market event on Sunday that never came about. I got the cheaper daily pass so I could experience the con and mingle, but not play any games.

I did win a special Magic: The Gathering promotional folding chair in the raffle which is cool. It means I have won one thing the raffle ever year of the con. My younger brother won Best Theme in the costume contest with his homemade Famine of the Horsemen armor.

Rising Star

This was the 21st Rising Star and I believe the sixth at Bluefied State College. Rising Star is very much a relaxacon; meaning it is more about just hanging out with fellow fans and guests than the actual programming itself. By that I mean most of the con was just wondering around the main room and talking with everyone. Not to say they did not have programming or that is was not good.

My favorite part of the con was being a guest for this blog and my nerdy music one. My name even indeed up on one of their poster, which I made sure to swipe one for myself. I ran two panels: WV Fandom and Nerdy Music. WV Fandom was mainly just me talking about the different events and groups that I know about through out WV with a few people till we got off topic. Nerdy Music was me explaining my take on “geek music” to a newbie.

One of the most well attended event at the con was the Brony meetup. I have no comment that I can publish for this. There was also a “Meet the Fan Groups” event for all the different groups at the con to introduce themselves to everyone; there were more people int the groups than who attended. There was also the college’s robot department showing off some of their work; one sprayed fire and another shot a paint ball gun, I do not fear zombies I fear a robot uprising. Saturday morning they played cartoons from the 60’s and served cereal It was awesome.

Most of the crowd cleared out at about 6pm. During and right after the costume contest; leaving just really the locals and hardcore people. Which is a shame cause the concert from White Plectrum and the Charity Auction were after that. I feel there was also too much of a lull leading into the contest, and not enough attempts to let everyone know it was starting on time, and a judging period that took longer than it took for all the contested to get up killed the some of the excitement.

Nice show a fans of all kinds of genres to connect, very cheap, and friendly environment. And so ended my six weeks on cons (I was at Cincinnati Comic Expo the weekend before Shockacon).